Rowan Holt answers accusations, reminds interviewer of EXodus' previous management.
"Creative Karma": Keli Nuang's newest exhibit pushes artistic and political boundaries.
Pandi frowned as he pulled up into the driveway of Noah and Camille's house. "I don't remember seeing that car before."
Zay was also frowning at the Mercedes-Benz SUV. "I don't either." He was out of Pandi's car as soon as it was parked and getting up on his tiptoes to peer into the strange car. "It's very clean," he remarked. "Almost like a rental. I'm not seeing anything personal in it."
Pandi turned off his car and got out, also coming around to take a look. The first thing he noticed was the glass. "That's bulletproof glass. Whoever owns this car is either really important or incredibly paranoid." After a moment, he added, "Or both."
Zay's eyes narrowed. "I know the Holts are careful, but I'm pretty sure they're not this famous or paranoid." He shifted his gaze to the front door. "Let's see who it is."
Pandi grabbed Zay's elbow to hold him back from rushing in. "Woah, hold on. Did Ezekiel answer your text asking if I could come in?"
Zay pulled out his phone and shook his head. "No. But I think the situation might require some brute strength. I hope it doesn't, but I'm suspicious about who the hell this fancy rich person is whose car is parked in our driveway." He pulled his elbow out of Pandi's grip and headed for the front door.
Pandi followed, making sure he was close enough to intervene if necessary, but all he saw was Camille cleaning the living room around Liam, who was considering a math problem he had written out on a small whiteboard.
Liam looked up and smiled as soon as he saw them. "Zay!" He scrambled up onto his knees, quickly capping the expo marker before he hugged Zay.
"Hey." Zay hugged the boy back, a surprised joy on his face. "Is your Papa here?"
Liam nodded, his expression falling from happiness into sadness. "Papa's tired. I-I think I did something bad. Papa got so anxious and sad and scared."
Pandi crouched down, pulling Liam's attention. "Can you tell us what happened?"
Liam nodded, still looking miserable. "We went to the store. I touched one thing, and it broke. And it scared Papa."
Pandi sat down, realizing this was going to be a longer conversation than he had anticipated. "It's not your fault that your Papa got scared. It was a loud, sudden noise, right?" When Liam nodded, Pandi continued, "Do you know what trauma is?"
Liam swallowed hard, his expression answering the question before his mouth could. "Yeah. I read about it in one of the journals at school."
"Your Papa has trauma," Pandi gently explained. "Some horrible things happened to him, so he sees a lot of the world as a threat. Even small things like something breaking can be enough to really scare him. It's not your fault that he has that trauma, okay?"
"Okay," Liam replied hesitantly.
"Good. Now, can you tell us anything about the fancy car in the driveway?"
Liam frowned. "It belongs to Papa's friend."
"Friend?" Zay questioned, clearly suspicious. "What friend?"
Liam shrugged and started tracing the edge of the whiteboard with his pinky finger. "I don't know. They seemed to know each other from a long time ago. He called Papa 'Kiel' and said stuff about them being best friends before. Papa called him 'Jimin'." He shrugged again. "He was nice. He got someone to clean up the mess and paid for the food and drove us back." He glanced toward the hall off the kitchen. "I think he's staying with Papa in the room."
Zay was up on his feet in a flash, and Pandi had to sprint to catch up with him as he threw open the bedroom door.
There was indeed a man sitting on the bed beside Ezekiel. He definitely owned the car out front, dressed as he was in a neat suit that looked like he had just picked it up from the dry cleaners. His dark blue tie was tied perfectly, and his choice of frame for his glasses complimented his face shape. He almost certainly had a personal stylist.
"Who the hell are you?" Zay snapped, his tone bordering on rage.
The man held a finger up to his lips in a shushing motion. "He's asleep, so can we talk quietly if we need to talk now?" His voice was politician-smooth, but he sounded genuine.
Zay scowled, but his eyes softened when they fell on Ezekiel's sleeping form. "Fine. But answer my question."
"I'm James Hwang," the man replied, his fingers carding through Ezekiel's blond hair in what seemed like a fairly instinctual movement.
"Liam said my brother called you Jimin," Zay countered.
The man just smiled. "Jimin is my Korean name. I chose to go by my American name when I entered my work field. Makes less room for the racists, you know?"
Zay raised an eyebrow, like he did not believe a single word. "And what is your work field precisely?"
Jimin laughed softly. "Am I getting interrogated to join the FBI or something?"
Pandi tapped Zay's arm as he came to a realization of who they were talking to. It had taken a minute, but he remembered where he knew the name James Hwang from. "Zay, unless I'm mistaken, he's our state's senator."
Zay glanced at Pandi and then stared at Jimin. "What? You're the dude who replaced Paolo?"
Jimin winced. "Yes. I don't like talking about my predecessor. With all due respect, he's a piece of shit."
Zay actually looked satisfied with that answer. "Good. He deserves to die in infamy."
Jimin nodded, clearly relieved that Zay approved.
But Zay was far from done; Pandi could see it in his eyes. "So, what do you want to be called?"
"You're Ezekiel's family, so I don't mind if you call me Jimin," the senator replied with a small, hopeful smile. "It will make things less confusing that way." He glanced down at Ezekiel, likely worried about the conversation waking him up.
"How do you know my brother?"
Jimin sighed. "So this is an interrogation after all. We met when he transferred into my high school. He was so cool," he said wistfully, "so sharp and beautiful and completely unobtainable. He pissed off so many alphas by just existing how he wanted to. He wasn't afraid to show off, and he gave the finger to anyone who made any sort of comment that seemed to hint that he should wear less jewelry or cover up better."
That description sounded so much like Zay that Pandi could not believe Jimin was talking about a younger version of Ezekiel. Maybe it was just proof that the two omegas really were siblings, inside and out, but Pandi had a hard time imagining Ezekiel as anything but straitlaced and scared.
Ezekiel moved, pulling one of the pillows he was surrounded with closer and tucking his chin over its corner. He sighed in his sleep and settled again.
Jimin had frozen at Ezekiel's movement, obviously terrified of being the reason he woke up. "We really should talk later."
Zay frowned. "We can just go to another room."
Jimin shook his head. "Kiel asked me to stay with him. I'm not going to take the risk of being gone when he wakes up. I don't want him to feel abandoned."
Pandi would have normally applauded Jimin's thoughtfulness, but he decided to keep his thoughts to himself. He did not want to piss off Zay.
And Zay was already pissed off. "What gives you the right to be here, to be so close to him?" He sounded angry, but Pandi could tell he was scared for his brother.
"Back when we were in high school," Jimin began, "that was fourteen years ago. It was still very socially acceptable to harass and abuse omegas, especially those without a partner. I was…a sort of shield for Kiel. Even though he was unashamed of who he was, he knew he was constantly in danger. We were already friends since we were both ostracized: him for his 'shameless' fashion choices and me because the school was full of kids from racist families. It was natural for us to pretend we were…more than we were. Nothing happened between us," he hastened to add. "We were always just friends."
"But you wanted to be more," Zay said, his tone accusatory.
"Yes," Jimin admitted freely. "But before I could say anything about it, he was gone. Kidnapped after school on the one day I didn't walk him home."
Oh. Pandi immediately clocked that Jimin blamed himself partially for what had happened to Ezekiel in those fourteen years, and he could see that Zay realized the same thing.
Zay's face contracted. He looked like he could not decide whether to be angry at Jimin or feel sorry for the anguish he had no doubt suffered since that day. "Was there a reason?" he asked softly, his tone far less aggressive than it had been so far.
Jimin shook his head. "Yes, technically, but it shouldn't have stopped me. One of the popular jerks had slammed Kiel's head into a locker earlier, and Kiel had told me he needed to be alone so his headache didn't get worse. I let him go." Jimin turned his head back toward Ezekiel, and regret was clear in his eyes as he continued swiping his fingers through Ezekiel's hair. "I didn't want to be too pushy or annoying. And that selfishness cost him everything."
Pandi spoke up, the therapist in him refusing to stay silent any longer. "That wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known what would happen."
To Pandi's surprise, Zay nodded in agreement. "You were just doing what seemed best to you in the moment. Even if you had been there, you might not have been able to stop it from happening. I don't blame you, and I doubt Kiel blames you for it."
Jimin was silent, his fingers tracing the path of Ezekiel's hairline.
Pandi gently lifted Zay's hand and kissed the back of it. "I should go before Ezekiel wakes up. You know he doesn't like me near Liam without his permission."
Zay opened his mouth to protest but then promptly shut it. He sat down on the floor beside the bed, his intentions clear. "Okay."
Pandi pressed another kiss to Zay's forehead. "I'll see you tomorrow, meri jaan."
Zay frowned. "I have a match tomorrow." Then his eyes went wide. "Are you coming to my match?"
Pandi felt anxiety pull at his throat. "Only if you want me to."
Zay nodded rapidly. "I do. Please come."
Pandi pushed a shaky smile out onto his lips. "You also have to go identify the guy at the station afterward, and I figured you didn't want to do that alone."
Zay nodded again, this time less enthusiastically.
Pandi could not blame him. He would never want to face someone who had sexually assaulted him, even if they were behind bars and he was safe. With another kiss dropped on Zay's forehead, he left the room, waving goodbye to Liam as he headed out the front door.
His drive home was silent. It was just him and his thoughts, uninterrupted by the playlist he usually played to shut his brain up. He would be there to support Zay tomorrow, both at the game and at the station. That was what he was supposed to do, right? He was supposed to be the pillar, the strong one. That was what an alpha was, and Zay needed that kind of strength to lean on. Pandi felt a little useless, being a beta and all. As far as he knew, omegas never chose a beta over an alpha. There were just so many disadvantages. Pandi had no pheromones to calm Zay. He was normal height and was only capable of normal things. Not to mention the fact that he had a toxic ex who was out for his blood for some reason he could not puzzle out.
He tapped his foot to the rhythm of the soft music in the elevator as it ascended to his floor and then pushed off the wall when the shiny silver doors opened. Letting himself into his apartment, he hung up his keys, kicked the door shut behind himself with his heel, untied his shoes, slid his feet into his house slippers, and went about cleaning the inevitable mess Zay had left behind in the kitchen this morning. He smiled to himself. Despite Zay's profuse promises, Pandi was the one who usually cleaned up after the chaos of their mornings. He did not mind. He liked cleaning. It cleared his head.
There was a knock at the door, loud enough to be heard but soft like it was coaxing him to come quickly.
Frowning, he walked to the entry hall. He was not expecting anyone, and he could count on one hand the friends who knew where he lived and would feel comfortable just crashing his place. He opened the door, maybe expecting Bradley.
It was not Bradley.
"Hello," Aimee cooed, twirling a strand of her curled hair around her finger. "I was hoping your new 'boyfriend' would open the door."
Pandi stood and stared at her. He should have shut the door in her face and turned the deadbolt for extra security. But he just looked at her like the idiot he was.
Aimee slid a cool hand up the front of his shirt, an all too familiar look in her scheming eyes. "But since he's not here…"